Weekend Reading

This week’s links:

5 Technologies that will shape the Web: from IEEE Spectrum. “We asked two dozen analysts, engineers, and executives to describe what technologies they think will shape our online experiences in the next several years.”

Big Data: from The Economist. ” Companies that can harness big data will trample data-incompetents. Data equity, to coin a phrase, will become as important as brand equity.”

Social Web beyond Facebook: by Liz Gannes. “What are other models of “social” besides Facebook’s current product? Could someone who does social better than Facebook mount a significant competitor to the site? And, most importantly, could they succeed?”

Playing Fast and Loose: by Pratap Bhanu Mehta. “A morally insidious vacuum in government. A self-proclaimed civil society displaying its own will to power. A media age where being off-balance gets you visibility. A public whose mood is punitive. An intellectual climate that peddles the politics of illusion. And all this in a context where government paralysis is enhancing the two biggest risks to the well-being of the poor — entrenched inflation and slowdown in growth. Instead of clamouring for visibility, we should follow old Baba Ramdev’s advice: take a deep breath.”